Leading off today: Aquinas made all eight of its fourth-quarter field-goal attempts and defeated Rochester Wilson 78-65 yesterday in non-league boys basketball.

   Wilson is ranked 13th in Class AA and Aquinas 24th in Class A by the New York State Sportswriters Association.

   Aquinas shot 72 percent from the field, including 69 percent on three-pointers. Alex Baron paced the Little Irish with 18 points, and Christian White added 16 points and seven assists.

   More basketball: Lamar Kearse (19 points) made a free throw with three seconds left in overtime to give Class A No. 1 Jamesville-DeWitt a 65-64 victory over No. 21 Bishop Kearney in Utica Notre Dame's tournament semifinals. Tyler Cavanaugh added 18 points for J-D.

   Track and field: Glastonbury (Conn.) junior Lindsay Crevoiserat won the lean at the wire to hold off Shenendehowa sophomore Lizzie Predmore in the girls Millrose Mile qualifier at the Yale Invitational. Crevoiserat finished in 4:57.15 to edge Predmore (4:57.16).

   In the 3,000 meters, Roslyn's Emily Lipari wired the field in 9:44.85. Colonie sophomore Kyle Plante took over the national lead in the girls 400 in :55.43.

   Devin Bennett of Ballston Spa won the boys 800 in 1:55.70, second in the U.S. this season.

   Milestones: Canandaigua girls basketball coach Bob Guy picked up career win No. 400 as the Braves beat Penfield 54-39. Guy is 400-82 in 21 seasons.

   Billy Coggins earned his 200th career win for Rocky Point on Friday in a dual loss to John Glenn. The 171-pounder's feat gives the Eagles three 200-match winners on their roster.

   Nichols guard injured: Nichols senior guard Ron Canestro will miss six weeks with a broken finger on his right (shooting) suffered Wednesday at practice, The Buffalo News reported.

   "It's hard to really know how it will affect us, because he's been with us for so long," said Greg Plumb, coach of the Class A No. 3 Vikings.

   Canestro, who underwent surgery last week, is a two-time All-Western New York selection.

   Nichols won its first game minus Canestro by topping Erie (Pa.) Cathedral Prep 68-57 on Friday to advance to the McDonald's Tournament final against defending Pennsylvania AAAA champion Penn Wood.

   Penn Wood topped Nichols 64-53 last night.

   Coach cleared: Long-time Amsterdam girls tennis coach Tony Orapello has been cleared by the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office of wrongdoing in an alleged incident that happened on a school bus last fall, opening the door for his to resume work.

   "I'm just glad it's over," Orapello told The Recorder. "I just want to move on."

   Orapello was forced to step down as coach during the investigation, the nature and extent of which was never clear. As time went on, however, it became apparent that charges would not be forthcoming and he will be able to re-apply for his job over the summer.

   Disgusting development of the year: The Recorder also reported last week on a messy matter. It seems an Amsterdam swimmer was suspended from the team after admitting to having defecated on the locker room floor.

   I don't know if the school has a community service requirement for graduation, but I've got the perfect candidate for someone to clean the monkey enclosure at the nearest zoo.

   I saw some nutty things happen during my school days. But if an incident like that had ever taken place at my school, the coroner would have needed to get hold of dental records to ID the culprit after the dean of students completed his "investigation."

   Restoring a bit of order: Maybe, just maybe, the PSAL has stopped the insanity -- even if it's just for a little while.

   Perhaps it will help kids (and the adults) remember that school is about academics and not sports. There's certainly nothing wrong with lacing up the Chuck Taylors after a day of the three R's in the classroom. There is, though, something wrong with picking a school based on basketball playing time.

   And it's worse when basketball is a major motivation behind a transfer.

   That's why the PSAL made the right call Thursday by ruling that Chris Ortiz, who transferred from Christ The King to Abraham Lincoln last month, was ineligible to play for the Railsplitters.

   Ortiz hadn't suited up in a game for the Royals, but he had been practicing with them and participating in scrimmages vs. other schools. That should be ample evidence that he was on CTK's "active roster," thereby triggering the PSAL to invoke its Rule 3.2 and keep him benched for this season.

   But that didn't happen last month when junior Kamari Murphy bolted Bishop Ford for Lincoln under almost identical circumstances. Murphy was granted his eligibility in the blink of an eye.

   What changed?

   "Since the Murphy case, we gained clarification from the CHSAA to help us determine the active players from the students who don't make the team," Department of Education spokesperson Marge Feinberg told New York Post reporter Dylan Butler. "In the future we will work closely together as a federation."

   Translation: The stench of seven kids leaving Xaverian to play at Boys & Girls or Lincoln over a two-year span, followed quickly by St. Raymond's losing four kids (three of whom had brief stops at other CHSAA schools) to the PSAL didn't matter, but the fear of retaliation by the CHSAA did.

   Let's not kid ourselves. Plenty of PSAL kids have found their way to the private schools over the years, too. But the recent one-way flow, and the PSAL's willingness to grant eligibility, raised eyebrows at even some of the public schools.

   Word on the street is that some CHSAA members floated the idea of a boycott of the season-ending Federation tournament. The Federation event is an awkward and flawed way to wrap up the season, but it's the only way we have bring together the champions of New York's four primary sports organizations to crown overall champs.

   Being labeled as the reason why no NYC or state champ could be crowned would have been a black eye for the PSAL, which would have had to answer to fans and, more importantly, politicians.

   Last week's about-face doesn't solve the problem, but it does buy some time. Perhaps the adults in NYC can use that time to refresh their collective memory regarding what school is really supposed to be about.

   Extra points: Joey DiPiazza is leaving his role as baseball coach at Albany High, where he had steadily built up the program in his four seasons and guided the '09 team to its first league championship in two decades. "The program is in a much better place than when I started, and the person that replaces me will be in a good position," he told The Times Union.